he term Premillennialist identifies Christians who believe that the thousand year reign spoken of in Revelation chapter 20 is an earthly reign of Christ. The word millennium is from two Latin words. [mille], which means thousand, and [annum], which means years, and the word pre which means "before." Thus Premillennial literally means "before the millennium," or before the thousand years.

It can be described as the belief that Christ returns bodily pre or before the thousand year of Revelation and will reign in an earthly kingdom established in Israel, and rule from the holy city Jerusalem. Their eschatology is that Christ will return and lift the curse to bring in righteousness.

Generally (though not always), Premillennialists believe in two separate and usually unequal salvation programs. One for Israel, and one for everyone else (Gentiles). They hold that a redeemed nation of Israel will be the center of government and of the spreading of the gospel to the nations of the world. This doctrine teaches that all nations will come to worship at Mount Zion. They point to scriptures such as,

Zechariah 14:16-17

• "And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
• And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, even upon them shall be no rain."

There are many variations of this doctrine, such as pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, and post-tribulation rapturists. And there are also the Chiliasts or so-called Historical Premillennialists, and Dispensational Premillennialists who place the rapture not at the second coming but at the beginning of the seven-year tribulation.

There is a general consensus among premillennialists that they are "uniquely" those who take scripture literally, while the others' tend to spiritualize. This is a misnomer, as the only real difference is in "where" and upon what basis Christians spiritualize. However, the use of the scriptures in the old testament that speak of literal kings and earthly reigns are often used in support of this view that Christ must also reign as a literal earthly king from a literal jerusalem.

Some forms of Premillennialists make a distinction between the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of heaven. But the primary difference between Amillennialists, Postmillennialists and Preterist on one hand, and Premillennialists on the other, is that Premillennialists believe the reign of Christ is in His literally coming back to earth to reign physically in the middle east, while the other eschatologies believe Christ already established His kingdom, is set down at the right hand of the father, and is reigning from heaven.